Diesel heater or propex

Martin gaze

Martin gaze

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Hi everyone would you go for a propex heater or a diesel heater. I'm looking at something I can put on over night for my daughter what are your thoughts
 
Martin gaze said:
Hi everyone would you go for a propex heater or a diesel heater. I'm looking at something I can put on over night for my daughter what are your thoughts
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Depends on a few different things....

If you have plentiful lpg capacity then a proper may be viable...

If you haven't than diesel may suit better.

I have had both and would always go diesel now...
I found real life useage to be cheaper on diesel, and more convenient (it uses fuel from vehicle tank) so I was filling the heater up when I filled up with diesel at the garage)
Fitted well and with exhaust and inlet silencers they aren't anywhere as noisy as 'some' folks profess.
 
I have a refillable lpg tank and a petrol station 20 mins away who just sign a 4 year contact to have the gas. But also have diesel van so I can go either way easily but am worried about having gas heater on overnight in winter and the flame going out
 
Martin gaze said:
I have a refillable lpg tank and a petrol station 20 mins away who just sign a 4 year contact to have the gas. But also have diesel van so I can go either way easily but am worried about having gas heater on overnight in winter and the flame going out
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The propex would a ffd (flame failure device) to cut the gas off if the pilot went out
And the combustion chamber is sealed from the room with exhaust/combustion air outlets outside
 
I had a propex in my last van and I would say the fan noise is high. It's either on or off, no mid speed like on an eberspacher. Also gas wise in winter I would go through a 6kg refillable bottle in 3-4 nights so not ideal as getting harder to find lpg. I'm hoping diesel next time. Also the propex says 2 amps but I'd say it used more.
 
Hi Guys. I'm looking to install a diesel heater in my new (in progress) conversion. Do any of you guys know anyone reliable to supply and fit in Shropshire, Mid Wales or West Midlands? I am a total newbie to MHs etc. and have never done anything like this before.
 
Only The Journey said:
Hi Guys. I'm looking to install a diesel heater in my new (in progress) conversion. Do any of you guys know anyone reliable to supply and fit in Shropshire, Mid Wales or West Midlands? I am a total newbie to MHs etc. and have never done anything like this before.
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With a little help I’m sure you could do it yourself. It’s not that hard. There is a sister site that would hold your hand during the process.
 
mistericeman said:
I found real life useage to be cheaper on diesel, and more convenient (it uses fuel from vehicle tank) so I was filling the heater up when I filled up with diesel at the garage)
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This seems likely to only be true if you are not using refillable LPG.
The reality is that both LPG and Diesel heaters are better than 85% efficient. I'll (arbitrarily) assume 90%.
I'll use today's local ASDA prices
Diesel costs around £1.13 per litre. A litre of diesel is about 846 grammes, which at 11.83 KWh/Kg is 10KWh gross, 9KWh net. 11.3p per Kwh
LPG costs around 52.7p per litre. That's about 500 grammes, which at 13.99 KWh/Kg is 7KWh gross, 6.3KWh net. 8.4p per KWh
The LPG heater fills up when you fill the LPG tank at the garage.
Of course, what you pay for diesel and what you pay for LPG will make a difference.
And yes, if you are swapping LPG bottles, you will pay a lot more for LPG, but the cure for that is obvious!
 
in h said:
This seems likely to only be true if you are not using refillable LPG.
The reality is that both LPG and Diesel heaters are better than 85% efficient. I'll (arbitrarily) assume 90%.
I'll use today's local ASDA prices
Diesel costs around £1.13 per litre. A litre of diesel is about 846 grammes, which at 11.83 KWh/Kg is 10KWh gross, 9KWh net. 11.3p per Kwh
LPG costs around 52.7p per litre. That's about 500 grammes, which at 13.99 KWh/Kg is 7KWh gross, 6.3KWh net. 8.4p per KWh
The LPG heater fills up when you fill the LPG tank at the garage.
Of course, what you pay for diesel and what you pay for LPG will make a difference.
And yes, if you are swapping LPG bottles, you will pay a lot more for LPG, but the cure for that is obvious!
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I've done both AND I'll still always go eberspacher over propex....

I know the figures SEEM to indicate that lpg(refillable) is cheaper...

BUT it wasn't the way I found it... With our useage pattern (if its cold.... The heating is on)
 
With our pattern of use, the heating is on, cold or not.
The thermostat takes control, so no need to switch off, though it is usually set to cut back the temperature dramatically at bedtime and come back up in the morning.
 
I fitted a Mikuni diesel heater to the boat. With the correct silencer it was very good. The air intake was from the cabin so it was not having to heat up cold air all the time.
 
Refillable LPG max say 30 litres maybe £18
Diesel tank bigger so at least 60 litres £70 (say) more expensive but will last 3x as long as more "heat per litre"
More convenient and available to fill up with diesel.
So other aspects being very close I would choose the convenience of diesel.
The good supply of LPG handy for you seems attractive but do not let that sway your choice too much
 
I converted our Hymer from gas to diesel, and then used diesel on our recent conversion. My wife was never comfortable leaving the gas heating on overnight. I know about the FFD and tried to explain it was no different to leaving the central heating on at home (when we were on gas) but she wouldn't have it. Any married man knows there no point arguing with the wife ;)

That said, we have been very happy with the diesel heater. It is a Chinese jobby off Ebay which I installed myself in both cases. They are dead easy to install and there is plenty of advice online.

As for running cost we have a separate tank so can run it on red diesel, which makes it even cheaper to run.
 
Only The Journey said:
Hi Guys. I'm looking to install a diesel heater in my new (in progress) conversion. Do any of you guys know anyone reliable to supply and fit in Shropshire, Mid Wales or West Midlands? I am a total newbie to MHs etc. and have never done anything like this before.
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I think that P.F.Jones will supply andfit a planar diesel heater. We have used them to buy a planar heater and would recommend both them and the planar
 
SquirrellCook said:
With a little help I’m sure you could do it yourself. It’s not that hard. There is a sister site that would hold your hand during the process.
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Generally speaking, I reckon the hardest part of installing a Diesel Heater setup is tapping into the fuel tank.
If you have an existing line you can use (say from an engine pre-heater for example), then no worries :)
If using a dedicated tank just for the heater, again, no worries

The rest of the installation is just a bit of planning and hole-cutting and is easily within the capabilities of anyone who is doing a van conversion.
 
I've used Propex blown air Carver gas convector and Erbespacher. I wasn't too keen on the Propex because of the noise, the gas usage and the power usage, the carver was very good except it didn't heat the lower floor area, but was very good on gas and did not require power to run, but the wind would occasionally blow the flame out. The Erby was brilliant but the van was commercially built and didn't have enough power to keep it going. So my present van which I have just finished has the Chinese diesel heater and it's my favorite, and I'm on lithium power which makes a big difference. If you decide to go diesel blower, there are lots of tutorials on Youtube, and they are not too difficult to do.
 
Side note on the Chinese heaters (and applies to Eberspachers and Webasto as well) ... They are quite intolerant when in comes to Low Voltage. To make matters worse, the Chinese Heaters come with incredibly long AND undersized wiring looms. AND .. they also can have inaccurate voltage readings in their electronics.
What that all adds up to is that your batteries can be perfectly fine with decent power still in them but the heater refuses to start due to voltage issues. The usual way round this (especially in the VW camper world where people tend to be limited to a single battery of around 100Ah so go a bit low quicker) is to start the engine to boost the voltage to allow the heater to start up. Bit of a PITA at 10PM or 6AM on a campsite (or maybe stop-over wilding in a residential area?).
What I do is fit a voltage regulator to boost the voltage to 13.2V (I think that is the preset) and fit that close to the heater. Eliminates the volt drop effect cause by the cable and no need to run the engine :)
Not needed with Lithium batteries but can be dead handy with Lead Acid. Fit the regulator with a 3-way or 2-way switch and you can chose to either use it or bypass it (saves having it powered on all the time when it is not needed). I use a 3-way which allows the heater to also be disconnected from power easily in the summer months.
If you do do this, just need something like a 150W or larger version (the heaters pull around 10A (120W) on startup). Costs around £10-£15.
 
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